Wednesday, November 2, 2011

I can tell you've been really good lately. And because of that you deserve a really, really good crockpot recipe.

Not mediocre.

Not eh, it's okay, I guess.

Nope.

A REALLY GOOD RECIPE THAT'S ALSO REALLY EASY AND ALSO PRETTY CHEAP.

here you go:

The Ingredients.

serves 6-8

3-4 pounds beef roast (I used a trimmed chuck roast)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup soy sauce (La Choy and Tamari Wheat-Free are gluten free)

1 head garlic (peeled, but leave cloves intact--approx 10 cloves)

1/2 onion, diced

1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and grated

2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 whole jalapeno, diced (be careful! use gloves!)

The Directions.

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Okay. This truly can't be any easier. I didn't brown my meat, but I did trim off the visible fat. I can make these directions complicated and tell you to add this or that first,

but it honestly doesn't matter. This is going to cook on low all day long, and the ingredients will distribute just fine all on their own. Throw everything in however you'd like.

Cover, and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until meat has fully shredded--- you can help it out by cutting the meat into pieces an hour or so before serving time. Serve in soft corn or flour tortillas (we are gluten free, and used tiny corn tortillas that are labeled gluten free) with shredded cabbage salad and white or brown rice.

this is how I made my shredded cabbage:

1 bag shredded coleslaw from the grocery store's produce section

1 tablespoon soy sauce (la choy or tamari wheat-free)

2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

toss together and serve immediately (it gets too wilty if you make it early in the day)

The Verdict.

Oh gosh. I must admit I've never had an authentic Korean taco off of a food truck because I'm not sure of the ingredient list, but I can't imagine they'd be any better. I was so pleased with this ingredient combination I was eager to share with my brother and sister-in-law and the neighbors. Everyone gave high praise.

My own children ate everything off their plates--- the jalapeno leaves a slight tongue burn, but it sneaks up and really isn't anything major--- just mostly smokey.

I can't wait to try this! My kids had a sample of Korean tacos at Costco (they came in a package w/all the ingredients, already cooked), and begged me to buy it, but I wanted to make it myself, and now I have a recipe. Thanks!

Ok silly question, Rice wine vinegar? Can I substitute another kind that I have in my pantry? Like plain white vinegar or balsamic? I obviously know nothing about vinegar to ask this question. But I have to many random spices I've bought in the past for one recipe or another that I don't use. Tulmeric is one. Bought for a recipe, and lost the recipe. So it sits sad and unloved in my pantry cause I don't know what to do with it. LOL!

I just made this last night, and it turned out really great! Not too spicy, but I also didn't add all the jalapeno seeds. A great, salty-sweet flavor that really let the beef shine through. Thanks for the recipe!

Don't be like me and forget to heat up those corn tortillas before dishing up the beef and cabbage!

Made it just as described and it was super good and easy and perfect for a Sunday afternoon dinner! I was a little worried about the addition of the jalapenos, but I didn't add any seeds and it was just fine, not to spicy at all. I gave the fam of options of rice or coleslaw and there was a mixed vote. (I tried the slaw and liked it!) Thanks for another good one. :) (PS, mine was done after 7 hours on low, and could have possibly been done sooner, easy peasy to shred)

Get out of town! I have just stumbled into heaven! I'm a slow cooker fanatic but the recipes are always so similar and lame. These are outstanding! My family size is growing very soon so I'm thinking I'm due for a new "pot". What brand do you recommend for a lifetime of slow cooking goodness?

I LOVED smelling this all day long! I even took a nap and could smell it in my sleep--yum! I liked smelling it much more than I liked eating it. It was OK. Something different. But the flavors I smelled all day didn't come through as strongly as I'd hoped. (Might add more ginger next time?) I made the cabbage slaw and enjoyed the meal as tacos. I also made brown rice and served it to my daughter with that. She raved about it. She has always enjoyed pot roast in the crockpot. My son didn't like it. He was late coming for dinner so didn't eat with us. He also admitted that he'd gone to Subway for a sandwich. I suspect that was more the reason why he didn't "like" it.

I will probably make it again. Especially since I have many of the ingredients now.

I have this recipe in the slow cooker. It is 5:00 on the dot, a few more minutes of work, a painful commute, and then *fingers crossed * a yummy dinner. I didn't have any ginger, so I left it out - I hope it is not a fatal mistake. I also didn't have a jalapeno, so I put a bunch of red pepper flakes, some Tabasco, and several dried peppers in the mix. It should be pretty spicy!

I made this tonight and it was great! My husband is pretty picky about trying new things, and he said that I can make it again :) Plus had other ideas on what we could eat the meat with! Yay for a successful dinner!Thanks!

I made this last night and it was amazing. I subbed about 2 Tbl. sambal olek for the jalapeno and it wasn't hot. Next time I will add more. I just used some Sriracha on the tacos when I ate them to spice it up.

R.Dorrian--- I used white vinegar because I was low on rice wine vinegar and was saving what I had for the cole slaw. It was fine.

This was absolutely, positively fantastic!!! We all loved it, even my picky 18 year old! I made it today for a client, I am a caregiver, and I think he will really enjoy it. Thank you SO SO much! It's a definite keeper and one to pass on to all of my friends!

@stubbornman, @SMno, no additional liquid is required. The meat will give off moisture, and cook in it's own juices. If you have a pot that doesn't seal well (you should see condensation built up on the lid), you can fix this by laying down a piece of foil over the stoneware, then put the lid on to seal in all the steam/moisture.

if you do this, be careful removing the foil, the steam will shoot out!

mmm I make these all the time although I use an actual bulgogi marinade :) Also a couple things that might spicy up your coleslaw... I add a bit of honey, some ginger, and some sesame oil to the vinegarette.. just adds some fun flavors.

Holy Mackeral, these were amazing. I know you hear this all the time, but your blog has changed my life. I'm a surgeon, married to a surgeon, with a two year old and a newborn...and now I actually feed my family everyday, instead of ordering pizza or grabbing mcdonalds. Thank you.

Hmmm. I must have done something wrong--I did half the recipe, since I only had a 1.8 lb. roast, but my meat was totally a burnt, sticky mess. Bummer--it smelled good, but this ended up being a PB&J and cereal night.

This is super tasty!!! I can't wait to try it again tomorrow after it's sat in the "gravy" overnight. Mmm! You could pair this with any starch and it would be great, but I just ate it over shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes and it was awesome!

This is a great, easy recipe. I substituted pork loin for beef and it was inhaled! my only complaint was that my jalapeno was kinda lame, lol. We even made the slaw and my daughter made quite the dent in that.

Made this a couple of days ago. I bought the wrong cut of meat - they must have had the expensive, nice cuts of meat on sale - somehow I ended up with some really marbled, bone in beef somethings - they would have been great on a grill. Anyway, I tossed them in. I had most of the ingredients - no ginger to be found in the house (where did it go?) and forgot to buy jalapenos so I just dumped a bunch of red chili flakes in instead.

It was fantastic! Quite greasy, which was entirely my fault in buying the wrong cut of meat. Otherwise, perfect. The sweet, spicy, salty, meaty flavor in a taco? Yes please!

New user to the site and I'm loving it!!Made these Tacos the other night and they turned out awesome. Didn't change a thing to the recipe. For sure cut off any excess fat on the roast. Both my husband and 13 yr-old son loved this and said we need to keep this recipe in our monthly rotation. It was even better the next day. Some were asking if there is enough liquid....there is more than enough liquid when it cooked. My son even had some of the liquid to "dunk" his taco into. THANKS for the recipe and I look forward to trying more from your site.

Oh my goodness! Made this today and LOVE it. So easy and delicious. Thank you! It's so nice to have a slow cooker meal that doesn't include canned tomatoes - I'll be making a lot more of your recipes :)

Wow, these are REALLY good. And the slaw I could eat all by itself. My 11-year-old claims he loves cabbage after eating the slaw. And, I've passed this recipe onto my sister-in-law and they eat it all the time now! Thanks for such great recipes Stephanie!

We're making this for the 3rd time this month! We used a chuck roast the first time and served on fajita tortillas, the second time we used the same beef but turned them into kaiser roll sandwiches with provolone cheese and baked in the oven - YUM! And today (special for our 4 year old's birthday! she loves this recipe!) we're making it with chicken breast and will again add to kaiser rolls with the provolone.

Thanks for the recipe. I found your site through Kalyn's Kitchen (kaylynskitchen.com) and I'm so glad I did! This was terrific and everyone loved it. I've recently rediscovered my 30-year-old crockpot and am on the hunt for from-scratch recipes. Thanks for the great ideas.

I made these and everyone really loved the meat, I just didn't care for it in taco form, which surprised me because I've wanted to try something like this for a long time. I made some sticky rice and served the meat over that and there was none left, so that's how I'll serve this from now own. Thanks for the recipe to add to my slow-cooker repertoire!

Put this on last night, just shreaded it up this morning (I'm actually in Korea, so never had these Korean tacos I've read about as they're a Korean-American thing). I should have trimmed the fat, lots of juice so I reduced it a bit.

Flavor is good, I put in 2 habaneros instead of jalapeno as I like things spicy. Still not terribly spicy, which is good since I'm the only one that likes spicy.

Going to take it down to my bar tonight, they have a microbrew event coming up with a kind of spicy beer that needs a good, matching, side dish. This might just be what they're looking for to go with the beer.

This is cooking as I type this and the smell is amazing. Feeding some hungry men tonight while.we (hopefully) see US Mens Soccer defeat Mexico. Thank you for the recipe. I am an avid reader of your blog.

I've been making this recipe since I started reading the blog a year ago and it is a family favorite, especially for large groups. We've also used the same method with pork shoulder and it's just as good. Thanks for a great, easy recipe!